UPDATE: Bank of America Tweaks Himax Technologies PO, Maintains Buy

In a report published Tuesday, Bank of America raised its Price Objective on Himax Technologies Inc.

from $3.30 to $3.35, and maintained its Buy rating. Bank of America noted, "We tweak our PO up 1.7% to $3.35 based on 9.9x 2013E P/E which is in-line with peers and appropriate given its strong EPS growth. We further base our PO on EV/operating capital of 0.9x which is aligned with the companies 9% ROOC in 2012 and likely 13% in 2013. Other display IC suppliers tend to trade between 8x and 16x through a product cycle. Industry-leader Novatek is currently trading around 13-15x consensus 2012 earnings. Himax has been generating a relatively low return on operating capital versus its Taiwan peers due to its low OP margin and high tax rate. We consider our estimates to be relatively conservative. Upside to our GPM assumption would come from mix - mobile DDI or new non-driver products." Himax Technologies closed at $1.97 on Monday.